Book Review: Windowpane

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Windowpane     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Steve Perry
Class/Genre:   Fantasy
Five Star, Feb 2003, $25.95, 413 pp.

Aging hippie street performer, Flint McLelland misses 1963 and desperately wants to see a return to the sixties. As he plays baby boomer golden oldies on his flute to earn loose change, Flint wanders the United States in search of sacred icons that represent the "Age of Aquarius".

Soon Flint gathers followers, mostly renegades, lost since the counterculture collapsed when the summer of love turned into the summer of riots end his cherished decade. He informs his aging flower horde that once he accumulates all the artifacts, the sixties will re-blossom stronger than ever. The evil scientist the Logician known in psychiatric wards as Dr. Lojia captures the hero. Logician insists that the flutist is patient Gerrard Hammond struggling to come back from a delusional trip into the past of his mind.

WINDOWPANE is an intriguing drama that leaves the audience to wonder if Flint is a mental case never recovered from drugs or a Pied Piper locked away to abort his tune. The tale provides a nostalgic look at the sixties, but not through rose colored glasses as some bad karma such as overdoses, riots, Nam, and bombings haunt the followers. Though well written and engaging especially for boomers, the tale never quite lights the reader’s fire to let their hair down along with Mary down Penny Lane, but his is still a haunting fantasy trip.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

Please Note: Books reviewed are usually provided by the publisher, author, or an agent. Reviewers usually get to keep the book.